The spirit of the book:

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah has a different character from
that of Isaiah. It does not contain the same development of the
counsels of God respecting this earth that Isaiah does. It is we,
that we are told many things in it concerning the nations; but it
is principally composed of testimony addressed immediately to the
conscience of the people, on the subject of their moral condition
at the time the prophet speaks, and with an eye to the judgment
with which they were threatened. Judah had forsaken Jehovah; for
their repentance under Josiah was but a fair appearance, and under
the kings that succeeded him their degradation was complete. The
prophet's heart was overwhelmed with grief, because of his love for
the people; at the same time that he was filled with a deep sense
of their relationship with the Lord. The sense of this produced a
continual conflict in his soul between the thought of the value of
the people as the people of God, and a holy jealousy for the glory
of God and His rights over His people -- rights which they were
trampling under foot. This was an incurable wound to his heart. He
had pleaded for the people, he had stood in the breach for them
before Jehovah; but he saw that it was all in vain: the people
rejected God and the testimony that He sent them. God Himself would
no longer hearken to prayer made for Israel. Jeremiah prophesies
under this impression: a sorrowful task, indeed, and one which made
the prophet truly a man of sorrow. And although he could always say
that, if the people repented, they would be received in grace, he
well knew that the people had even no thought of repenting. Two
things sustained him in this painful service: (for what could be
more painful than to announce judgment for their iniquities, to a
people beloved of God?) first of all, the energy of the Spirit of
God, which filled his heart and compelled him to announce the
judgment of God, in spite of contradiction and persecution; and
then the revelation of the people's final blessing according to the
unchangeable counsels of God. After this brief notice of the spirit
of the Book of Jeremiah, the proofs and details of which we shall
find in going through his prophecies, let us now examine these in
succession.

The order of the prophecies in the Septuagint and Hebrew Bible

It is well known that the order of the prophecies in the
Septuagint is different from that in the Hebrew Bible. But I see no
reason for not receiving the latter. There is no doubt that it does
not preserve the chronological order. The names of the kings [1] in
the successive chapters clearly prove this. But it appears to me
that, where there is chronological confusion, the subjects are
classed, and that according to the mind of the Spirit.

The general contents of the Book

The first twenty-four chapters have rather a different character
from those that follow. To the end of chapter 24 it is a reasoning,
a moral pleading with the people. In chapter 25 there is a formal
prophecy of judgment on divers nations by the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar. And afterwards we find prophecies much more
distinct from each other, and connected with historical
details. Chapters 30-33 contain promises of assured blessing for
the last days. From chapter 39 it is the history of that which
followed the taking of Jerusalem, and the judgment of Egypt and
Babylon.

The prophet's expression of the anguish of the remnant

]There can be nothing more striking in the way of deep
affliction than that of the prophet. He is distressed; his heart is
broken. One sees too that God has made choice of a naturally
feeble heart, easily cast down and discouraged (even while filling
it with His own strength), in order that the anguish, the
complaints, the distress of soul, the indignation of a weak heart
that resents oppression while unable to throw it off or overcome
it, being all poured out before Him, should bear testimony against
the people whose inveterate wickedness called for His
vengeance. The affliction of Christ, whose Spirit wrought that of
Jeremiah, was infinitely deeper; but His perfect communion with His
Father caused all the anguish, that in Jeremiah's case broke out
into complaints, to be in secret between Jesus and His Father. It
is very rarely expressed in the Gospels. He is entirely for others
in grace. [2] In the Psalms we see more of His feelings. In
Jeremiah's case, it was proper that the anguish of the faithful
remnant should be expressed before God. The absolute perfection of
the Lord Jesus, and the calmness which, through the presence of
God, accompanies His perfection in all His ways, allowed of no
complaint, whatever might be the inward anguish of His heart. He
thanks in the same hour that He can justly upbraid. Sympathy for
others became the position of Jesus. We see that our precious Lord
never failed in this. But it was equally becoming that the
outpouring of heart of the faithful, who needed this sympathy,
should be expressed by the Holy Ghost. It is not that there was no
weakness in the heart that poured itself out; but if the Spirit
lays it open, it is evident that He must express it as it is;
otherwise it were useless and false. Consequently Jeremiah enters
much more personally into his prophecies than any other
prophet. [3] He represents the people in their true position before
God -- such as God could recognise, as being before Him in this
character -- in order to see whether, receiving from God that which
applied to this position, and expressing the sentiments inspired by
such a position, it was possible to reach the conscience and win
the heart of the people; always remembering that these sentiments
were expressed according to the Spirit, and accompanied by the most
direct and positive prophecies of that which God would bring upon
the people. It is to be observed also, that a great part of that
which was written was not addressed in the first instance to the
people, but to God. This position of Jeremiah's, as the
representative before God of the true interests of the people, or
of the remnant, causes him to be looked at sometimes as though he
were Jerusalem itself, and, at other times, as a remnant separated
from it and set apart for God.

The period of Jeremiah's prophecies

But these points will be better understood by examining the
passages which bring them into notice. The period during which
Jeremiah prophesied was of considerable length, and embraced the
whole time of Israel's decline, from the year after that in which
Josiah began to cleanse Jerusalem and all the land, until the final
destruction of Jerusalem by the army of the Chaldeans; and even a
little while after in Egypt, a period of more than forty years -- a
period throughout of distress and anguish. For although Josiah was
a godly king, the reformation of the people was only an outward
one, as we shall see. So that the anguish of one who saw with God
was so much the greater on account of this appearance of
piety. "And Jehovah was not turned away from his fierce anger,
because of the sins of Manasseh." Nevertheless the prophet
distinguishes between the two periods, that is, the reign of
Josiah, and that of his successors. Excepting in chapters 21-24
there are no dates for the first twenty-four chapters. It is
probable that they were mostly given under Josiah's reign. They
contain moral arguments, the expression of the prophet's sorrow of
heart, and solemn warnings of the coming invasion from the
north. The four chapters I have specified have no chronological
order, and are probably composed of prophecies given at different
periods. They contain the judgment of the different branches of the
house of David successively, as well as that of the false prophets
who deceived the people. They end by declaring the fate of the
captives in Babylon, and of those that remained with Zedekiah in
Jerusalem -- the two very different from each other.

[2] Compare Matthew 26 where this is brought out in the most
striking way. It is very precious to see both this perfect result
in Christ and at the same time all that He felt in His heart as
man, both as sensible to circumstances without and so deeply
exercised within. Perfect exercises within produce perfect
quietness in walk without, for in both God is fully brought in. If
we avoid the full dealing with the matter with God, the heart
cannot act for Him as if all were disposed of: and that is peace in
action. Yet how precious to see the reality of Christ's human
nature in all the intimate exercises of His spirit.

[3] There is something analogous in Jonah. But there the
circumstances of the prophet are an episode, and are not connected
with the testimony he bore, unless by the single principle of
grace.